Tax Refund Advance: Filing Your Taxes For The First Time

Filing your taxes for the first time on your own may seem like a scary process for most taxpayers. You are probably young and your parents have filed for you throughout your whole life so far. Through your parents you have filed as a dependent. Obviously, that is not much experience to draw from.

However, now you are now a responsible young adult and you probably have a job that makes you proud. Despite the change, filing tax returns on your own does not have to be intimidating or such a scary thing.

The first thing you need to know is that April 15 is the big deadline for filing your income tax return with the IRS. Your taxes have to be in by that day, or they will be late. A simple postmark will due for paper returns or the electronic time record if you file your return electronically or efile for short.

You need to know that your taxes do not include the information from April to April, but from January to December. So for the current tax filing year, you will include the all the financial details from the January before last through the previous December. For example: if today the year was 2020, you would be filing a tax return in 2020 for the last complete full year of 2019.

This means that if you want to maximize your deductions for a given tax year, you will need to plan, prepare and do things before December 31st, the cut-off each year. A good person to talk to about payroll deductions is your employer. An accountant is best for everything related to taxes and accounting. If your one of the very few who have earned or come into a large amount of money you may need the services of a CPA and/or tax attorney.

Online tax preparation software such as TurboTax simplifies the creation and efiling of federal and state tax returns. TurboTax is paved with step by step instructions, calculators and just about anything and everything needed to make efiling a tax return easy for taxpayers. TurboTax literally walks you through the entire process in simple uncomplicated organized steps. Whether this is your first time filing tax returns or you are a seasoned old timer, TurboTax comes highly recommended and makes simple work of efiling tax returns.

Your employer will know, and may have all of the tax forms on hand that you need. If not you can pick them up at most United States Postal Service offices (the USPS), the post office. You may also need some forms from employers you worked for previously in the tax year you are filing returns for.

The W2 forms and 1099 forms should sound familiar to you. One or the other or perhaps even both are forms that you will likely need.

One of the many deductions you can receive comes from giving or making charitable donations. If you donated money to a good tax deductible cause throughout the previous year, you will be able to include it in your taxes. It is a good idea to visit the IRS website as they have many tips posted about recent tax changes and about how certain types of deductions will affect your overall tax payment.

They also have several services that can make filing your taxes much easier. Some of these applications are even free.

Then, you will want to request a copy of last year’s tax return from your parents so that you can see how they did it, as long as they did it correctly of course.

Keep in mind that you probably make less than your parents. This means that you will fall into a different tax bracket.

Tax brackets are of different levels of incomes and each level of income is required to pay a predetermined amount of taxes on a percentage basis. Most likely you will fall into the 28 percent or lower bracket, but your state’s tax bracket may be different.

Filing can be challenging if you have no idea what you are doing. Often there are many tax help classes available in many communities which you can attend and get free help.

However, if you have an accounting friend, or even another friend who has filed taxes before, they may be able to help you. You can also hire a tax professional to help you with your taxes if you have enough money.

If you decide to hire a tax professional, be sure to get some references for good ones that charge a decent price from your family and friends. You can also research tax professionals in your area online.

Jackson Hewitt, H&R Block and Liberty Tax Service are three of the largest national tax service firms. However, a tax help software program like TurboTax may be enough to get you through the process of filling out your own taxes painlessly.

The IRS website has some software programs like this for free on their website as long as you fall into lower tax brackets or file simple returns. If you choose to hire a tax professional you will want to check to make sure that they have the right credentials.

They will be looking at private information and if they uses it wrong it could severely hurt you. Be sure that you agree with their price and that you feel like you can trust them as well.

If you have your own job, you should be putting away some money for retirement. The money you put into a 401K up to a certain amount is deductible from your taxes.

This can make a significant difference in your taxes. These tips can help you get started, but be sure to get help if you need it.

Also you may want to keep in mind that if you have a refund coming back you may qualify for a “refund loan“.

The IRS website has a wealth of information about this year’s taxes as well as pages with frequently asked questions. Do not hesitate to get the help you need now, rather than later when the IRS comes knocking because you accidentally did your taxes wrong.

But no worries, there is no law against being a bad bookkeeper or making legit errors; although it may cost you a financial penalty.

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